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Running the Farm : Farming diary
Note: South Island farms will be about one month behind North Island farms
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Running The Farm
Farming Diary
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What a contrast this season has been to recent seasons. There has never been so many bales of silage stacked up along fence lines and in yards for years. Crops just soaked up the rain. It's just a pity the bottom of the South Island missed out, and hopefully they can be helped out from the North Island surpluses.
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It's the start of a new year but only half way through the production season. It's a good time to work out how things have gone, now that the reproduction part of the season is over, and it should be time to get some cash back on lambs and weaner calves sold.
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- It's easy to panic in December, realising that important decisions are needed for next year. It would be wise to predict that the run of recent dry seasons starting before Christmas is not yet over - requiring extra planning. If your supply of good quality pasture packs up in December and will not be seen again till autumn, what are you going to do?
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- Pasture management is the top priority for November and it can be panic time. Two things can happen. Either pastures go crazy and start to show seed heads in a matter of days, or the expected 'flush' doesn't happen and you're not sure why.
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The 'spring flush' should be arriving in the North Island, but it's a month away in the South Island. But don't get too excited. Always be prepared for a delay, and have a clear pasture management plan based on a feed budget. This is a measure of what feed is on the farm, what is going to grow and the feed needs of the stock.
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It should be time to see some real spring growth, and look forward to the date on your farm where pasture growth exceeds stock needs and you can talk of a genuine feed surplus. But don't get too carried away just yet.
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 It's easy to assume spring has arrived in Northern parts, but be prepared for some late chills from the icecap. Southern farmers know all about this, and plan their calving and lambing at least a month later.
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 The main danger in July in the northern parts of New Zealand is to start thinking it's spring because dairy calves are arriving at saleyards. A lot of nasty weather is still to come, so be prepared.
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Winter has arrived with its stress on pastures, stock and humans which is all weather dependent. Autumn rains saved the feed situation, but the financial effects of the early summer drought are still real. It's important to do a feed budget. If it's a mystery, get some help. June is when you see if your stocking rate for the farm is about right, and if things don't balance, don't hesitate to get rid of stock. This may come at a financial loss but it's better to quit stock early, rather than wait till they lose more money by hanging on to them.
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Autumn has turned out to be a challenge in many northern parts, as we thought the April rain had saved the day, as after the good pasture growth it produced, it was easy to conclude that we would be in good shape for winter. But there has not been a great 'autumn flush' that we hoped for before temperatures started to drop, and the semi-tropical summer grasses (especially paspalum) started to disappear.
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- We are into Autumn, when soil temperatures start to drop. April will be tricky this year because of the past variation in weather over the country. Many parts of the country thankfully had good rain in January due to tropical activity which may have officially ended droughts, but it didn't grow enough autumn pasture to bring dairy cows back into profit. It's been a season of high costs, which will take well into next year to clear - regardless of farm size.
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It's March so accept that it's autumn, certainly in the North Island, and it's time to make serious plans for winter which means working out how much feed is on hand now, and predicting how much is going to grow. The January-February rains certainly saved our bacon in many parts and got pastures growing again, but we'll have to wait a bit longer to see if we are going to get a true 'autumn flush' to produce feed in excess of demand.
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